I don’t know about you but sometimes I have really bad days and have no way of letting out my feelings. Most of my bad feelings center around men and the way they have disappointed me. I have some real resentments when it comes to the way some of them have treated me. I also have remorse when it comes to not respecting myself more when it comes to men. I feel guilty and ashamed that I have not treated myself better. Then when the reality kicks in that I did the best that I could with the only kind of man that was available at the time the grief really kicks in.
The problem is that this stuff builds up inside me like a pressure cooker whose lid is never taken off. This is not a good state to be in. A girl needs a good cry every now and then to stay healthy. This is also because it is unseemly for a woman to show anger in society. One of the ways we show anger is to bawl our heads of.
I used to watch sad movies to try and have a catharsis so I could cry. Listening to music like the Cranberries can also trigger a needed emotional release. However I was intrigued to read that exercise can do it too.
According to a piece called Moved to Tears written by MSNBC columnist Jacqueline Stenson exercise can cause you to cry. This is because certain body movements can help release dammed up feelings and emotions. It is apparently quite common for instructors to see exercisers releasing pent up emotions during Pilates, Yoga or other types of classes. I have actually seen this. The girl doing the downward dog who suddenly starts sobbing. The woman doing Aquafit with tears slipping out of her eyelids.
The theory is that the body tends to hold on to feelings long after the mind has let them go. The motion of exercise has a way of triggering the connection between the mind and body so that these feelings can be felt again. This is because when we are in the grip of our emotions we sometimes don’t feel our emotions. Doing yoga or hard exercise makes us feel our bodies again.
Some people cry during the quieter disciplines such as Yoga as it is the only time during the day when they are able to slow down, breathe and identify how they really feel. It can be triggered by fast exercise as well. I get emotional when I ride my bike sometimes. I also know that the road rage I feel at cars and stupid pedestrians while I am on my bike is also caused by pent up emotions.
Of course this theory is not unfamiliar to Chinese doctors who have been identifying energy blocks caused by negative feelings for years and who have been using needles to remove them.